SAUL, or, in Hebrew, Shaʾul, son of Kish, a Benjaminite, was the first king of Israel (c. 1020 BCE). The beginning of the monarchy under Saul, and with it the creation of a national state out of a loose association of tribes and clans, is attributed in the tradition to external threats from east and west. Saul's kingship is presented in 1 Samuel as a transition from the time of the judges, temporary charismatic leaders of individual tribes or regions, to that of a more unified and permanent military rule.

Saul's ability to rally support from the Israelite tribes in order to relieve Jabesh-gilead from the Ammonite siege and achieve a victory for the Transjordanian tribes (1 Sm. 11) was the actual occasion in the oldest tradition for making him king. In subsequent military activity his forces also had some success against the Philistine garrisons in the central hill country (1 Sm...